Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool

I live a slow life. I have for several years now, since 2021. I gave up the busy. I gave up the list of things I “had” to do.

What is the “have to?” Ever hear yourself saying, “I have to…” It immediately takes you out of the present and what could be in this moment because you have this thing calling to you, this burden of what “must” be done. But if these things are needed, if they have to be done, if we must do them, how can we let them go?

There are ways.

1 – Be intentional with your time. Give it to the Lord. Everything you have is from Him and for Him. Give your day to God to do with as He pleases. Trust Him to lead and guide you continually. If it doesn’t get done, there’s no burden about it. It wasn’t for today or maybe isn’t needed.

2 – Be intentional with your choices. If you are going to do something, do it because you have chosen to do it, so it’s a positive, not a negative. This is something you have chosen to do for a good reason, not people pleasing, not because it’s what you always did, but because you and your family and in relationship with God have chosen this as the best decision for that time and energy to be put to.

3 – Be intentional with your perspective. It’s a “get to,” not a “have to.” We’re to give thanks in all circumstances. What you have before you right now is what you’ve been given to do right now, so give thanks. This is the day, this very day and all that is in it, is the day the Lord has made. Rejoice and be glad in it!

4 – Speaking of what’s before you right now, be intentional with what you have before you. You probably don’t need to be scrolling or watching that video. There are probably other things to be doing right now. There are always any number of things you could be doing. What would be the choice of loving others? That’s our command in Scripture, love others. Where’s the love? How can you be loving others with this time? Then do that. Do the thing you’ve chosen to do right now. Nothing else is on the plate. Do the thing in front of you. There’s nothing else you should be doing, so nothing else is pressing on you.

5 – Be intentional with your schedule. Why are you choosing to do the things you are doing? There’s no need for a full schedule. It’s a matter of pride in America to be busy, to have a lot to do. Pride is a sin. Let it go. Kill it off. When someone asks if things are busy, say, “No.” I enjoy telling people I’m not busy when they just assume everyone is. I do one thing at a time. There’s never a lot to do when you are just doing one thing at a time.

6 – Be intentional at being ahead. You never know what’s coming round the bend. Stay ahead of things. If you volunteered to do something, have it prepared long in advance, as much as possible. Don’t wait. Something may come up. When you have the chance, be working on it. I do kid activities for my church for certain Sundays. I had the church Christmas gift activity bags done in September. No hurry. Little by little. I don’t let something consume me, my time, my life. I don’t want something to take away from my family. I never don’t have time to make dinner. If we’re going to be out, I plan dinner around that. Plan ahead. Prepare ahead. Stay ahead of what you can and on top of the rest. Don’t put things off. Do them now when you get to choose to do them, before they become things you “have to” do because you delayed and now there’s urgency.

I learned those things as an answer to a prayer to learn to work in the Lord’s strength. I knew I wasn’t and I had no idea how to. The result was an unbusy life. I gave my life to Him to handle. He does a good job of it 😊So, let me add in another way to be intentional. This one I didn’t learn in recent years. I’ve been reading my Bible daily since I was ten!

7 – Be intentional with the Lord. Get out of bed and sit quietly with the Lord. If a baby is what gets you out of bed in the morning, figure out how to sit quietly with the Lord with a baby in your arms. Put on worship music. Put on an audio Bible or read the Bible while you nurse. If older kids are getting you up in the morning, teach them to read their Bible first thing in the morning! Assign a quiet play/reading spot (maybe their bed) until you come and get them. Practice until they know the routine. Practice during the day. Pretend to sleep. Have them stay in their bed when they wake up, and they can look at their Bible board books or whatever Bible you have for them until you get them. Practice with longer and longer times. You can use music in their rooms to let them know how long it will be. I used to use an alarm that would play a CD. They knew if there was no music, they should try to go back to sleep. If the music was on, they could play/read in bed. I always came in on the same song, so they would know when it was close to the time. That’s just what I did. Make your own routine for you. Don’t be me. Be you. But the goal of all that is you having quiet time with the Lord, first thing. There were times I did my quiet time in the middle of the night between nursings. If it’s important to you, you’ll do it. It’s important! Do it!

Living and working in the Lord’s strength means looking to Him for what to do and when to do it and how to do it. It’s not carrying the burden of the things that need doing. It’s letting Him decide what’s important and what’s important right now, so the rest can slip away. I don’t have to carry any burden around and can just focus on the one thing in front of me right now. It’s a heart attitude of getting to serve and love as a choice, not an obligation. Doing the dishes is fun when you do it in fellowship with the Lord with rejoicing and no complaining. It’s by His grace that we can live to love others instead of looking at ourselves and what we want or think we need. It’s by His grace we can let go of the pride that holds onto busy and let ourselves live slow and unhurried. It’s by His grace we can see what needs to be done ahead of time, so we can be prepared and not rushed. In Him we live and move and have our being. He gives us all that is necessary for life and godliness. It all comes from Him. Look to Him to supply your every need.

I have tried to explain how to get rid of the “have to” demands on your life, but the truth is I only learned the slow life because the Lord Himself taught me, through life, through trials, through blessings. He knows best how to work these things into us. Pray and ask the Lord to take the busy out of your life, to teach you to live without urgency, to live in His strength and not your own. He’s the best teacher.

This was announced on My EP, but there is now a PIN protection option on the parent settings page if you have a need of it to keep kids from changing settings.

This was announced on the high school site, but there’s a new half-year math course on the site, Everyday Math Applications.

Did you ever “believe” for something and it didn’t happen? What was wrong?

What went wrong is that we place our faith in the wrong thing. We put faith in our faith. We’ve made a “Christian” copy of the “Power of Positive Thinking.” We try to control things. We’re not God.

We make terrible gods. You shouldn’t want to control things. You don’t know the future. You don’t know the plan. You don’t know the best way. If you have goals other than God’s perfect purposes being worked out in and through you, then you are aiming at the wrong goal.

We want God’s “perfect” for ourselves and our loved ones, and hopefully for everyone! What’s our part in bringing it about? We believe. Our part is having faith. But what do we have faith in?

Did you ever wonder at Elijah’s faith that it would only rain at his word and then wonder at his lack of faith, running away in fear? What happened? Why was there faith in one circumstance and not the other?

God had told him that it wasn’t going to rain and when it was going to rain again. He had the Lord’s sure word. He could rely on His God’s faithfulness to keep His truthful word. He had no word from the Lord about Jezebel wanting to kill him. He fled instead of running to God.

Most of you are familiar with the famous story of Job from the Bible. He was the wealthiest man of the East in his time. He also had seven sons and three daughters. And although he feared God and stayed away from evil, there was something else he feared.

Job 1:5 …Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my sons have sinned, and renounced God in their hearts.” Job did so continually.

Job was afraid his children would sin and die and so he acted as mediator between God and his children and made offerings to God on their behalf, wanting to justify them before God. He was trying to save his kids.

Are you homeschooling out of fear? Are you trying to save your kids? Whether you are wanting to save their souls or save them from the school system, fear should never be the motivator, and saving your kids is not your job.

We feel the heavy weight of homeschooling because we take on a burden that isn’t ours. Your child’s future is not in your hands. You don’t know the plan. Someone else does, though.

Don’t carry the weight of a burden that you were never intended to carry. You aren’t the primary teacher, provider, protector, comforter, rescuer, and savior to your kids. Those are words that describe God. You are not God. Taking on a role that’s way too big for you will crush you. Even if you are a “Pintrest perfect” mom and seem to be crushing it today, you will never have the ability to see into the future to know what your children need today to be prepared for tomorrow.

There is Someone who can work it all out for the best, who can meet every need, and who gives you a specific job to do: love your children. Enjoy them. Enjoy being with your kids.

Fear is not the motivation to homeschool; love is. Do it out of love.

Job loses all of his children. He loses all his possessions. He gains an understanding that God is awesome, bigger than we can imagine, in control, all-knowing, all-powerful, only good and always loving. Job learns that he isn’t God.

I will not encourage you to self-empowerment; I will encourage you to truth. The truth declarations I remind myself of are that I know nothing, can do nothing, and have nothing. Jesus is my all in all. In Christ I have everything, can do everything, and in trusting Jesus, I know that I don’t need to know everything; I just need to know Him.

If you are carrying a burden too big for you, give it over to God. Just pray. Tell Him you are giving it to Him to carry. Thank Him for taking it and for doing a better job than you could. If you don’t know God, tell Him you want to get to know Him. Who wouldn’t want to know an always good, always loving God? And to start getting to know God or to get to know Him better, I would suggest to you the Bible study on our site, “This Is Eternal Life.”

Maybe you’ve heard it said, “God is never in a hurry.” I was thinking this morning that applies more broadly than it may seem at first.

Jesus stops on the way to heal someone’s dying daughter. She ends up dying before He gets there. He still goes, unhurried. He raises her from the dead. But you know when else Jesus didn’t make haste? Before He overturns tables and drives the merchants out of the temple courts, he makes a whip.

You can get the idea that Jesus sees the temple marketplace and in His zeal for His Father’s house starts scattering coins. But He doesn’t fly off in a rage. He stops. He stops and makes a whip first.

How often are you reactionary?

Do you ever make homeschooling decisions as a reaction? Things don’t go well one day and you jump ship and try something else without considering maybe there’s a miracle up ahead if you stay the course.

Do you ever make a decision in a moment of zeal without first looking over what’s needed?

I can remind myself even in the kitchen, “Don’t make haste,” if I start hurrying about. It will get done. Things get done if you just keep moving, no need for the hurry.

There’s the busy kind of haste, where everything seems to be hurry up and go. I determine not to be busy. I keep well ahead of things so it doesn’t come down to, “I HAVE TO do this now.” If something’s on the calendar, it’s because we chose to have it there, not because we HAVE TO do something. There are choices. We can choose to not be rushed about. We can choose to not make haste.

I live a slow life. I learned it several years back. I asked the Lord to teach me to live in His strength. The result of that prayer was a slow life. I don’t make haste. I stay the course. I wait on the Lord and trust Him. I’m not here and there and back again. I do what’s in front of me to do right now without feeling the weight of all that’s still left to do.

And I stop and pause and pray because I don’t want to make decisions as a reaction and I don’t want words to come out as a reaction.

I don’t want to make haste. I want to make peace in my life and in my home.